


when the end comes (will you remember)

by lincesque



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M, Non-Canonical Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-02
Updated: 2013-10-02
Packaged: 2017-12-28 05:39:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/988351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lincesque/pseuds/lincesque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With every thrust and parry, every step and manoeuvre the boy makes, Erwin sees the future. He sees the rain of Titan blood on fields of snow and ash, he sees the devastation that Levi will wreak upon the scourge of mankind.</p><p>Or a series of AU vignettes where everyone has a <i>gift</i> and there are no happy endings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when the end comes (will you remember)

**Author's Note:**

> aka the mutant au that I wrote for shits and giggles and became angstful really fast what. it's very choppy and unfinished because this is all that i could get out ;A;
> 
> all the kudos to [feng](http://emperorofruin.tumblr.com/), who I basically threw all of this at on skype and made her reassure me that it was readable [to which I remain doubtful lmao]. this is for you bb~~ <3
> 
> this is why you should possibly not be my friend |D;;; i'm sorry ;;

_When the end comes, will you -_

*

 

“Are you precogniant?” Hanji asks, curious, the first time she meets Erwin properly. She throws herself into the conspicuously empty chair opposite him and leans her weight on her elbows. She knows who he is, of course. There are few who haven't heard of the prodigious talent that is Erwin Smith. His name is whispered with reverence in public and sneered with jealousy in private - a man who is destined to be great even if he is not yet even a captain of the Survey Corps.

 

“Pardon?” Erwin looks surprised. The expression vanishes the next second, quick enough that Hanji almost doubts it was there in the first place.

 

“Do you see the future?” Hanji presses. It is well known that Erwin is a master of evasion and she knows if she gives him so much as an inch, he’ll just take the mile and run with it. “Is that your gift?” She tilts her head. “I’ve seen the way you avoid certain people and all of them end up dead, one way or another.”

 

Erwin’s brows rise. “If you’re accusing me of killing -”

 

Hanji flaps her hand, irritated. “No, not that. Don’t try changing the subject. The people you tend to go out of your way to avoid are the ones who wind up dead. Thus, I conclude that you either can see the future, or you are actually a serial killer hanging about us for kicks.” The latter is almost a joke.

 

Hanji’s hasn't noticed just how sharp Erwin’s eyes can be until now. His too-blue eyes are focused with blade sharp intensity on her, scrutinizing, weighing. She holds his gaze and doesn’t look away. This is a test, she knows, and she’s never failed one before, she’s not about to start now.

 

Erwin’s smile is a small tilt at the corner of his lips, it’s either admiration or a mere concession. Maybe both, it’s hard to tell.

 

“Have you considered what branch you’re going to join after graduation?” Erwin asks, almost a complete non-sequitur, except Hanji knows that if she gets this question right, she’ll be one step closer to something big, something important.

 

“That depends,” she says, going on nothing but gut instinct, and lets her grin show a hint of teeth. “But I hear that there’s only one way to get up close and personal with a titan.” Her eyes linger on the Survey Corps insignia that stands out boldly blue and white on his chest. The _wings of freedom_. 

 

Hanji leans back and raises her eyebrow. “Is that good enough of an answer for you?”

 

Erwin inclines his head and there’s a glimmer of something bright and sharp hanging at the corner of his almost smiling lips. “Hanji Zoë,” he murmurs as if committing her name to memory.

 

*

 

Eventually, one day, he does tell her.

 

“I see choices,” Erwin says, dropping the words into the silence that lies comfortably between them. “And the consequences thereof.”

 

*

 

“They say the King has a younger half-brother,” Mike mentions, offhand, one day.

 

“Apparently there is a bastard, yeah,” Hanji agrees, distracted from where she’s reviewing Erwin’s latest formation. “But they’re only just rumours.”

 

“The Royal line is gifted,” Mike notes in his slow, calm way. “Only the royal house have the mind gifts.”

 

Hanji blinks at this, digesting the information and its connotations immediately. Her eyes widen even as Erwin knocks perfunctorily at the door before striding in. He offers both of them a brief nod of acknowledgement and tilts a questioning look at Hanji and Mike, who stare at him mutely.

 

“Your surname,” Hanji says slowly. “Isn’t actually ‘Smith’, is it?”

 

Erwin’s brows rise but his only response is a smile, bland. “It’s a very common name,” he agrees.

 

Mike snorts and Hanji hits him hard on the shoulder, making sure to double the force.

 

They speak no further on the subject and it is never brought up again.

 

*

 

Erwin knows who is going to die before it happens. He avoids those people - and it starts off completely unintentional, but becomes a habit. He brushes them off, always polite but distant and firm. It gives him the appearance of aloofness but it’s all a lie. He doesn’t want to get too close because he’s already seen how it would end.

 

The first time he sees Levi though, there is a surge of something - something searingly hot and heavy that had pressed against his chest, burning against his heart darkly. Erwin knows, in that very moment - when their eyes meet for one brief heartbeat - that Levi is going to be the key for the future, his key.

 

He sees the boy, now a man, and he flies through the air, soaring high in the sky, free, viciously beautiful, and Erwin knows that he must have him, he knows that he will have him.

 

Erwin doesn’t believe in fate or destiny, but he’s not the type of man who would let such a gift, an advantage, slip through his fingers.

 

With every thrust and parry, every step and manoeuvre the boy makes, Erwin sees the future. He sees the rain of Titan blood on fields of snow and ash, he sees the devastation that Levi will wreak upon the scourge of mankind.

 

He smiles, watching Levi cut through the air, and doesn’t think about how he never sees himself.

 

*

 

Levi’s moods resonate with the sky.

 

Erwin sees him smile only once and he remembers the barest curve of his lips and the golden glow of the sun that had enveloped him entirely.

 

 _Beautiful_ , Erwin thinks, unable to look away and in that moment, he realises that he wants.

 

He wants so much that he will destroy them both.

 

*

 

Erwin sees the choice.

 

Either Levi dies, here, today with the rest of his corps, or Erwin will need to sacrifice his own life slightly down the track.

 

It’s an easy choice - the easiest he’s ever made.

 

*

 

Erwin dies, alone - without Levi, or Hanji or Mike at his side.

 

Eren is barely able to stand, and there are still bloodstains that linger at the jagged edges of his torn jacket and pants. He’s barefoot on polished wood, exhaustion palatable almost. Mike inhales and can almost taste the bitter cloy of death and the worn metallic tang of old blood and the acrid stench of exhaustion. But Eren is a soldier, baptised by fire, and he insists on being the one to make the report.

 

“We were surrounded on all sides. Rei- the Armoured Titan,” he corrects himself, a tight tic in his jaw when he almost says the name. There’s a fleeting shadow of anger - of betrayal, almost - before it’s swept away, buried deep. “The Armoured Titan was preparing to clear a path through when the Commander rode right into the middle, alone, and charged him.”

 

Levi stands opposite Eren, feet braced, face unreadable. He remains deliberately two steps away from Mike and Hanji both. Eren glances at him uneasily before licking his lips and fixing his gaze towards where Hanji and Mike stand. His words come faster, almost tripping over one another.

 

“He used his maneuver gear to close in on Bertholdt and then ran him through, freeing me. We jumped down to his horse and were almost back to the main group when an Abnormal suddenly veered our way and -” Eren stutters to a halt, swallowing hard, and he falls silent, his fists clenched so hard that his entire body trembles with the strain. “He pushed me out of the way,” Eren says.

 

He drags in a shaky breath and the scent of despair rises, a memory re-lived by force and it hits Mike like a hammer to the chest. “We couldn’t stop the bleeding,” Eren finishes hoarsely.

 

“Did he say anything in the end?” Levi’s voice makes Eren jerk upright, startled. Mike keeps his gaze straight, on Eren and doesn’t look towards Levi, not even once. Hanji does the same next to him.

 

Eren shakes his head. “No. Nothing personal. Except -” Eren glances away from him and Hanji to look at Levi again. “His last word was ‘remember’.”

 

There’s a rumble of thunder in the far distance, a heavy, booming sound that shakes the windows and makes Eren shift uneasily. Hanji’s sigh is so soft that Mike barely hears it.

 

“You’re dismissed, Yeager,” Levi says, voice still eerily calm.

 

Eren snaps a salute and makes his retreat, footsteps echoing down the wooden corridor rapidly.

 

There’s silence in the room for one long minute.

 

“Levi.” Hanji is always the one to break first, to reach out first, to try and fix things before it’s too late. Mike loves her a little for that even though he knows that it’s already much too late.

 

*

 

Levi stands in the downpour, face tilted up to the sky.

 

Mike can only bear to watch for a moment before the bleak desolation that surrounds Levi - tasting of burnt and bitter ashes - curls around his shoulders, and starts to drag him down as well. He turns away, shutting the window and pretends that there isn’t the lingering taste of salt in the rain.

 

*

 

“Remember,” Erwin had said to Hanji. “The battle is never won until the last second.”

 

“Remember,” Erwin had said to Mike. “You need to keep an eye out for our captain when I’m not around. Do it as a favour for me.”

 

“Don’t forget,” Erwin had said to Levi. “I lo-”

 

And Levi had kissed him then, refusing to let him say the words out loud.

 

*

 

“Captain!” Eren calls from where he rides beside him as Levi turns to look behind.

 

“Eren,” Levi says, as he pulls his mount around, heading back the way they came, back towards the charging mass Titans. “Everything else is up to you.”

 

The sun glows so bright in that one moment that Eren has to blink tears away.

 

Eren knows what Levi means to do and he knows that there is no choice left but to accept it. He stands in his saddle and salutes with his fist tight over his heart. “I won’t let you down, sir!”

 

Levi lifts a hand - in acknowledgement or in farewell, no one will ever know now - and he draws his blades.

 

He smiles and -

 

*

 

“When everything is over,” Erwin had said, one day long ago. “When there's finally peace, will you still stay with me?”

 

“I’m not a stray,” Levi had snapped. “I’m not to be kept.”

 

Erwin had laughed then, a low chuckle that tumbled from his chest, shaken his shoulders and lit his blue eyes with a soft light.

 

Levi had turned away, but had let Erwin’s hand smooth over his hair, brush across his cheek, fingers gentle.

 

And they had both known - had both always known, perhaps - that Levi’s answer was always going to be ‘ _yes_ ’.

 

*

_\- remember._

**Author's Note:**

> to the confused: Erwin can see the potential outcomes of any choice, Levi controls the weather, Hanji can absorb energy, Mike has super enhanced senses. 
> 
> find me on my new [sub-tumblr](http://rolloncat.tumblr.com/), apparently just for my snk feels what even (屮゜Д゜)屮 I take requests, accept flailing, screaming and am happy participating in all sorts of shenanigans~


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